After a crazy week at work, what better way to lift our collective spirits than to head over to Pasadena to investigate the infamous Colorado Street Bridge, which is locally known as Suicide Bridge due to the hundred or so people who have jumped from it to their deaths below.

Walking to Suicide Bridge after parking in the nearby neighborhood.

It was a chilly night and Carol had brought along some hot tea. Also joining us was our friend Lenora, a psychic from the area. Unlike most of our investigations, this one took place in the bright light of the many street lamps lining the curve of the bridge. Thus no night vision footage but we did videotape our activities anyway.

The Colorado Street Bridge was built back in 1912 to cross the steep Arroyo Seco river bed which separates Pasadena from Los Angeles. Legends tell of a workman who fell to his death in the cement and thus became entombed in the bridge’s foundations. The bridge continued to take lives in the form of suicides who jumped to their deaths 150 feet below. Over 70 of these occurred during the Great Depression, although they do continue to present day; the latest deaths were in 2010 despite the suicide barrier installed during the bridge’s renovations in 1993. Since the early 20th century, the flood-prone river itself had been brought under control, and the wide area beneath the bridge often hosts homeless campers, who report seeing ghostly figures and hearing strange noises.

The bridge spans the Arroyo Seco

Some of the better stories include that of a young, distraught mother who flung her baby off the bridge, then jumped to her death. The baby survived, having been caught in the branches of a tree. The young mother’s spirit is said to wander the bridge searching for the baby that didn’t follow her into the afterlife. Other spirits include figures in Depression-era clothing and disembodied voices whispering in you ear.

We walked as a group about mid-way onto the bridge, getting a feeling for the span. It was really odd being in such bright light and having the occasional car drive by. The 134 freeway is close by and the drone of traffic was quite loud. To think that more than 100 people (some estimates are over 150) had died here of their own accord was hard to wrap our minds around. However the overall feeling of the bridge was one of sadness and hopelessness — an emotional scar lingering from all the desperate souls.

Tyler describes the pulling sensation he felt.

Despite the terrible history of the bridge, we only had one remarkable personal experience that night. Tyler had stepped up on one of the benches set every 20 yards or so along the sides. He was facing out, arms spread and asked for something to push him, to make their presence known. What he felt instead, was something tugging on him, pulling him forward, off the bridge. Of course the suicide barrier was in front of him so he wasn’t in actual danger of falling over the edge. He actually wobbled forward, then became physically overwhelmed by the energy. Here’s a video of him recapping the event:

Lenora felt the presence of several entities, but we weren’t able to find any EVP evidence on the audio we recorded, nor anything odd in the multiple photos taken over the course of about two hours. I had been working with the KII and had noted that the electrical access panels to the lamp posts gave off high readings. However besides a single odd spike later in the night that do not repeat, there was nothing out of the ordinary EMF-wise. Carol was playing around with an iPhone ghost app that spoke words and phrases, and did get an interesting set of responses immediately after having taken several photos: ”shot” “correctly” “stone.” But again, nothing was found in her photos either.

Sam at one of the Suicide Bridge benches.

Given the wind chill, the late hour and the possibility of homeless campers, we didn’t venture down into the area under the bridge. Maybe we would have had more luck down there. However it was worth a try and good to be out investigating. We’re posting a longer video of the entire night on our YouTube channel if anyone is interested in watching.

8 Responses to “Pasadena’s Suicide Bridge”

Ive been down this street many times. I always felt a presence near. The death thought to be suicide was driven by insanity. You guys are brave venturing out in the night. Good luck on more great investigations. You also have been featured on our blog facebook talk column.

I have a suicide survivor group gathering every other week, the 2010 suicide was David, and his mom and I are pretty close as we met in the group, Just last night we talked about trying to do something about the benches on the suicide bridge in order to make it harder to jump, We (small group) intend to get pics of the benches and how easy it still is and try to do something about it… I would really enjoy sharing idea’s and info … Cathiplaysball@gmail.com R.I.P David

Up top isn’t bad, but if you take Arroyo Blvd, which leads to the Rose Bowl, you can actually go under the bridge, right by the Arroyo. There’s a locked off driveway. Down there, it can get pretty scary.

Hey guys! Thanks for posting your experiences, and I really enjoy watching you do your investigations. I recently moved to Los Angeles about 4 years ago… It’s swept me away with all of the Ghost Stories, and Haunted Locations that surround us here. I’m a big fan of your work, and would love hang with you guys if you are ever going to go out on a hunt in the near future. I have a link to my history and photo blog here: http://phantomlosangeles.blogspot.com/ Let me know what you guys think! Take care, Jason

In the 90s my dads friends were driving down suicide bridge and they felt a presence, they swear to have seen a ghostly woman that brought to them an evil sort of presence. Two weeks later one of the guys was on his motorcycle and got into a crash on the bridge. Everyone thinks that the ghostly woman they saw could have been an evil presence bringing bad luck to them resulting in one dead that same month.